Why am I digging clad dimes? ANSWER

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Lets be clear, I hate clad dimes, HATE! In the old days I never dug them because the Explorer and Explorer II could reliably distinguish between the two. But more recently its like I can't avoid digging the worthless slugs which is irritating me. I had blamed this on the nasty volcanic black sand here in the Pacific NW but some testing today confirmed this is not the issue. Explorer/Explorer II machines are behaving different than the Explorer SE Pro. Could be differences between the machines or the coils.

I was testing a lot of targets on the Deus and doing some comparison testing on the SE Pro. I noticed the clad dimes were frequently ID'ing with part of the cursor off of the top of the screen which was bugging me, and explains why I am digging them lately because on earlier Explorers that meant silver dime. On the older Explorers if the cursor landed so that the top of the cursor was partly off the top of the screen out of view this was a good indicator of a silver dime vs a clad dime. Clad dimes could jump up there but only occasionally, for most swings on clad dimes the entire cursor was visible. Just the opposite was true for silver dimes, most swings part of the cursor was off the top of the screen and only occasionally would the entire cursor be visible. Hence avoiding clad dimes was easier.

So I fired up an original Explorer with a black Explorer II coil, presto silver dimes and clad dimes behaved like they used to. So its either the coil differences, or maybe the machine. I'd have to mount the Explorer II coil on the SE Pro to confirm. At least I'm not losing my mind anymore lol.

 

[sgoss66]

Interesting, Charles.

Here's a similar, but different, story about coils.

With the Minelab Pro coil, I learned how to fairly reliably separate most nickels -- even deep ones -- from most types of aluminum junk. Sure, there are still odd pieces that will be dug that seem very nickel-like (odd-shaped pieces of pull tabs and such), but most "whole" stay-tabs and beaver tails and such will ID just SLIGHTLY different from a solid nickel hit, with the Pro coil.

HOWEVER, as much as I love the 13" Ultimate coil for digging high conductors, it behaves differently, with nickels. While it will "air test" a nickel just the same as the Pro coil, and will ID them in the ground down 2-3" in the same way that the Pro coil does (roughly 09-06 numerically, when using a "mid-range" noise cancel channel), the ID on a nickel beyond about 3" in depth begins to deteriorate. On the Pro coil, the nickel would hold a pretty good, consistent ID on the CO side, down to a good 8" to even 9" (although the FE number creeps up with depth, into the mid teens to near 20). HOWEVER, the CO number deteriorates significantly when using the 13" Ultimate, to the point where it is next to impossible to separate nickels out from the other, common items which ID on either side of the "nickel ID range."

For what it's worth, the 6x8 SEF "butterfly" coil behaves very much the same as the Pro coil on nickels (and thus, much, much better than the 13" Ultimate).

I find it interesting how coils behave, on certain targets. Each coil definitely has its own "signature."

Steve

 

[BigTony]

Charles, I understand and feel the same way about not digging them at all. Some days it seems there are so many of them - it's just crazy.
The one thing close to clad dimes are some memorial penneys. So that might be the reason the coil or machine gets fooled - the copper content might get more of a halo effect.

 

[IDXMonster]

The vast majority of my sites are holding old coins beyond a certain level. Not ALWAYS...but most of the time. I rely heavily on the depth meter, along with the duration of the response. A deep coin will have a significantly shorter response than a 3" coin...just a tip for the newer folks who are reading.

 

[BigTony]

Some call that a small signal, very interesting for sure

 

[aproc123]

I've also dug several worn barber dimes that Gave numbers that wouldn't have indicated silver. i use the sef 10x12 now and Indians hit at 0-22 dug one at 0-19 early wheats hit there too, later wheats hit as expected. Nickels? With this coil not predictable for me, with the pro coil they were consistent. I've learned to dig based on tones and trust the tones alone, the numbers are a good indicator, but like you said based on id hard to tell. A gravel spot that corrodes silver with a blue crust with my at pro I passed on zinc signals. Going back over with the explorer se the number was 5-27 to 7-25 but audio was to sweet, turned out the signals were mercs and wheats covered in crust at 3". I just dig the clad in hopes of it being shallow silver.